Late Season Wizards' Player Rotations

[europeanfan]

You have to bench Morris and Gortat now. They've been the letdown of starting unit late this season, no reason to not go away from them while the team tries to figure out how to slow scoring.

Let Morris and Jason Smith battle it out for minutes.


Wall
Beal
Oubre
Porter
Mahinmi

That's by miles the best 5, Brooks doesn't HAVE to start them necessarily. But he has to make sure they get the most minutes together.

I mean it's a beautiful 5 where everyone can defend, you get gang rebounding, you get spacing, you get steals/deflections, rim protection...

If these guys play 40min, I don't think any team is out of reach.

[Mojo Amok]

The sad numbers of the frontcourt starters post All Star Break (with somewhat ramshackle formatting, sorry)....





Yikes. And I'm thinking the eye-test is worse than the stats.

In Porter's case, the 125 ORTG sounds nice and all, but the context is a lot of that is built on having turned the ball over just 4 times since the break and he's pulling back his usage at a time when other core cogs are struggling, which just puts unbearable nightly pressure on Wall and Beal.

I'd support starting Mahinmi all the same, but unless we get more out of these guys I don't know what you could do rotation-wise to improve the results and peak for the post-season.

[nate33]

The sad numbers of the frontcourt starters post All Star Break (with somewhat ramshackle formatting, sorry).....

Here's their pre-all-star game numbers alongside their post-all-star game numbers, so one can see the extent of the decline. (Pre-ASG is first row, Post-ASG is second row):

GORTAT:


MORRIS:


PORTER:

[Sluggerface]

I think you kind of owe it to Gortat to see if he can break out of his slump, but I don't see Brooks starting him in the playoffs if he can't rebound out of this. Especially given how effective Ian has actually been.

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

You have to bench Morris and Gortat now. They've been the letdown of starting unit late this season, no reason to not go away from them while the team tries to figure out how to slow scoring.

Let Morris and Jason Smith battle it out for minutes.


Wall
Beal
Oubre
Porter
Mahinmi

That's by miles the best 5, Brooks doesn't HAVE to start them necessarily. But he has to make sure they get the most minutes together.

I mean it's a beautiful 5 where everyone can defend, you get gang rebounding, you get spacing, you get steals/deflections, rim protection...

If these guys play 40min, I don't think any team is out of reach.

I think you start them early to set the defensive tone because the points given up by halftime has gotten out of control.

Let that defensive mentality set in, hopefully build a lead, then make your substitutions including Gortat and Morris.

I think they hold the fort playing with the second unit.

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

You have to bench Morris and Gortat now. They've been the letdown of starting unit late this season, no reason to not go away from them while the team tries to figure out how to slow scoring.

Let Morris and Jason Smith battle it out for minutes.


Wall
Beal
Oubre
Porter
Mahinmi

I'm totally on board with sitting Morris and Gortat to start games. Not sure if it's effort, injuries or being tired/worn out, but both of them are a problem right now.

I don't know why they've suddenly become so unassertive. A fire seems to have been lit under Oubre following his reduction in minutes, being pulled from the starting unit could have the same effect on Morris and Gortat.

If they want back in then they'll have to produce.

Although I get the feeling that Gortat has conceded to the idea of not being a focal point on offense anymore and sharing big minutes with Mahinmi.

[Mojo Amok]

Also, I would not be in favor of starting Oubre this season. Just use him like he is now with the potential for a few more minutes, but he's very successful in his current role and it's really not clear how things would go if he started. He was a complete disaster in at least one of the games he started and we'd be running with Porter out of his comfort zone while he's off his game too (and possibly hurt).

He'll still get plenty of minutes with a lot less risk this way, IMO.

Next year well might be different.

[nate33]

Also, I would not be in favor of starting Oubre this season. Just use him like he is now with the potential for a few more minutes, but he's very successful in his current role and it's really not clear how things would go if he started. He was a complete disaster in at least one of the games he started and we'd be running with Porter out of his comfort zone while he's off his game too (and possibly hurt).

He'll still get plenty of minutes with a lot less risk this way, IMO.

Next year well might be different.

Even next year, I'm happy with Oubre coming off the bench. It just seems to work the best. Porter, despite the recent lack of assertiveness, is still an extremely good player and it would be ridiculous to bench him. And Morris is a bigger, stronger guy who matches up physically with opposing starting PF's better than either Porter or Oubre.

As Oubre continues to improve, I'd like to see him gradually take minutes from Morris (and Smith) until we max Oubre's potential minutes out. (Coming off the bench, it's really hard to play more than about 30 minutes.)

[europeanfan]

Bump, you can't keep your 2 best defensive players on the bench. Mahinmi has to start before it's too late.

[montestewart]

The Gortat dropoff in some ways was anticipated earlier in the season when he was shouldering some of the heaviest minutes of his career. Switching to Mahinmi as starter could take pressure off Gortat, allowing him to be a key bench scorer, and absorb some of the pressure and bruising that Morris and Porter seem to be shrinking away from. Is it too late in the season for Brooks to consider such a change? Hope not.

[dangermouse]

He's overdue to get the start. Good coaches like Pops change the starting lineups often. Mahinmi starting fixes some of our woes on the defensive side, and we don't even lose much on O.

I think we keep Porter at starting 3. But someone needs to remind him ITS A FRICKEN CONTRACT YEAR. His dormancy since the ASG break is surely raising red flags for other teams that might come with a fat contract.

[queridiculo]

Brooks still hasn't figured out what he wants his rotations to look like, and there isn't a whole lot of time left to do it.

Over the last 10 games Porter is only averaging 27 minutes. Otto has struggled a bit, but cutting Porter's minutes by nearly 10 minutes seems really questionable when you consider that he's our most efficient offensive player.

Oubre has earned himself minutes with his play, but his playing time shouldn't come at the expense of Porter.

Morris imho is the weak link and also the one position without any obvious alternatives.

Perhaps it's time that Brooks gives Porter a chance to play the other forward spot for at least 10 minutes a game while Oubre shares the floor with him.

I'd play Morris a max of 25-27 minutes.

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

Perhaps Gortat's 16 minutes of play vs. GS is a signal that a change is near.

Mahinmi in the starting lineup tonight seems very plausible.

[europeanfan]

Brooks still hasn't figured out what he wants his rotations to look like, and there isn't a whole lot of time left to do it.

Over the last 10 games Porter is only averaging 27 minutes. Otto has struggled a bit, but cutting Porter's minutes by nearly 10 minutes seems really questionable when you consider that he's our most efficient offensive player.

Oubre has earned himself minutes with his play, but his playing time shouldn't come at the expense of Porter.

Morris imho is the weak link and also the one position without any obvious alternatives.

Perhaps it's time that Brooks gives Porter a chance to play the other forward spot for at least 10 minutes a game while Oubre shares the floor with him.

I'd play Morris a max of 25-27 minutes.

Good point.